Safety door for aeroplanes



July 17, 1956 G. PRovl-:NzANo SAFETY DOOR FOR AEROPLANES Filed April 13, 1953 TIEL?. 4b

mvENTom GAETANO PRUVENZNQ United States Patent O 2,754,904 SAFETY DGOR FR AEROPLANS Gaetano Provenzano, Paterson, N. J. Application April 13, 1953, Serial No. 348,298

6 Claims. (Cl. 160-371) The present invention relates to doors and closures, and particularly to safety doors and the like for airplanes.

The main object of my invention is to provide an airplane with one or more safety doors by which passengers may escape from the same in case of an accident to the plane.

An ancillary object is to provide an airplane with one or more safety doors of special construction in addition to the conventional door or in place of the same, if desired.

Another object of the invention is to have an airplane equipped with a special safety door that is made largely of metal mesh or screen construction so as to bend and not break in case of crashing of the plane, and be capable of being pried or bent open readily for speedy escape of passengers to allow them to be away from the plane if tire breaks out after a crash landing.

It is thus an object to have an airplane provided with several such safety doors, so that passengers may escape from more than one exit, when necessary to leave the plane quickly.

ICE

Upon considering this problem, it has occurred to me 'that an airplane should have special safety doors that have two characteristics not present in conventional doors, namely, they should not become rigid obstructions to escape if deformed by a crash of the plane, and they `.should also be readily bent or'distorted to be pushed or otherwise moved out of the way to facilitate egress from the plane. As a result, I have Vsucceeded in producing a safety door for an airplane along the lines already intimated in the foregoing, as will now be set forth in .-detail in the following.

It is, of course, an object to have the airplane involved safely equipped with such doors without materially increasing the cost of the plane unreasonably, nor materially increasing its weight, or in any practical way altering operation of the plane for iiight, take oi or landing normally.

Other objects and advantages of my invention will appear in further detail as the specification proceeds.

In order to facilitate ready comprehension of this invention for a proper appreciation of the salient features thereof, the invention is illustrated on the accompanying drawing forming part hereof, and in which:

Figure 1 is a side elevation of an airplane equipped with safety doors made according to the present invention and embodying the same in a practical form;

Figure 2 is an enlarged side elevation of one safety door of Figure 1, showing better detail thereof;

Figure 3 is a vertical section of the safety door of Figure 2 as taken on line 3 3; and

Figure 4 is a similar view showing how the door may be bent or distorted in order to be opened for escape of passengers from the plane at will.

Throughout the views, the same reference numerals indicate the same or like parts.

Everyone who uses an airplane for various trips realizes, at least to some extent that accidents are not only possible, but also probable at some time or other. The main danger, aside from the greater or smaller severity of a crash, is the likelihood of fire after or during the crash landing. It is obvious, then, that it is of paramount importance to provide a means of instant escape from the plane as soon as it is on the ground, so that no delay occurs in getting away from the plane at that time. When once away from the craft, it matters less if it catches tire and even burns completely, for with passengers out of the way, at least no life is lost.

motor driven propeller 1t). The fuselage also includes one or more doors 11 allowing ingress and egress of passengers at the airport when supplied temporarily with a landing stairway or gangplank, the plane being equipped with at least one such door, but preferably with one or more such special safety doors on both sides of the fuselage. Each door primarily includes a metal frame 12 hinged at 13, 13 to a door frame 14 in the fuselage wall 6 and having a handle 15 for operating latch or lock 16. The frame 12 has an intermediate open area occupied by a plurality of thicknesses or walls or metal mesh or screening 17, 17, 17 secured to the frame in any manner known in the art. Between two of these layers of screen material 17, 17 is located an imperforate sheet or transparent plastic such as cellulose derivative, styrene plastic or vinyl plastic to make the door normally wind proof.

The door as thus constructed normally acts as any conventional door, except when a serious accident occurs. For example, if the plane crashes so as to tend to impose pressure on the door, it will bend, but not break, and no matter what form it may assume as in Figure 4, it will still be possible for a passenger to push and by force and pressure suiiiciently distort the door to dislodge it from the door opening 18 and allow free egress of the passengers from the fuselage without obstruction or delay. In other words, the door is so constructed that whether it is in normal operative condition or deformed by pressure due to accident to a plane, yet it will be pliable when it is attempted to force it out of the way in order to free the doorway when the plane has reached or crashed to the ground.

The door itself may be made of three, four, tive, six or more layers of screen mesh of metal, some of which may be line and others more coarse, as desired. Preferably, at least one sheet of transparent plastic material is inserted between two or more screen sheets to make the door wind proof, but not effective to make it too rigid to be distorted by hand when an accident makes it imperative that passengers should at once escape from the plane. Any meshes ranging from 30 per inch to six per inch may be used, but iiner and coarser than these are also within the range of use in the invention in one or more layers of the door mesh.

Manifestly, variations may be resorted to, and parts and features of the invention may be modified or used without others within the scope of the appended claims.

Having now fully described my invention, I claim:

1. In a construction of the class described comprising a relatively fixed frame, a swingable door having a frame cooperating with said fixed frame, the door frame including inner and outer endless metal strips which are lirnitedly bendable, hinge means connecting said door at one boundary side thereof to the fixed frame, manipulable fastening means connecting the opposite boundary side door to said lixed frame, at least two metal mesh screen members having their boundary edge portions xedly disposed between said metal strips, said screen members having a mesh between 6 and 30 perforations per inch and an imperforate sheet of material of plastic type also having its boundary edge portion Xedly disposed between said metal strips.

2. A swingable door according to claim 1, in which the material of said imperforate sheet is transparent and bendable.

3. A swingable door according to claim 2, in which there are two sheets of said imperforate material, an inner sheet of said metal mesh screen material disposed between said two sheets of imperforate material, and two outer sheets of said metal mesh screen material, said latter two sheets having their inner faces engaging the respective outermost faces of said respective imperforate sheets.

4. In an airplane door, a safety device hingedly mounted therein and thereon, said device consisting of a frame and pliable means occupying the area of said frame intermediate the bounding edges thereof, said pliable means consisting of a plurality of layers of woven wire screening, the rigidity of said pliable means being such as to permit its manual distortion and ejection from said frame, despite deformation of said door, said device being rendered windproof by the interposition of at least one imperforate sheet of plastic material between said layers of woven wire screening.

5. A device according to claim 4 wherein said woven wire screening has a mesh ranging from 6 mesh to 30 meshes per inch.

6. A device according to claim 4 wherein said plastic material is selected from the group consisting of styrene and vinyl plastic material.

References Cited in the tile of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 600,904 Beall Mar. 22, 1898 1,062,210 Anderson May 20, 1913 1,346,107 Alberico July 13, 1920 2,075,042 Knerr Mar. 30, 1937 2,249,927 Abramson July 22, 1941 2,255,725 Trescher Sept. 9, 1941 2,318,967 Pillsbury May 11, 1943 2,412,787 Verhagen Dec. 17, 1946 2,416,037 Mead Feb. 18, 1947 2,453,937 Ray Nov. 16, 1948 2,511,816 Shaw June 13, 1950 

